Top 9 Cryptocurrency Exchanges To Start Trading On For Bitcoin Beginners

According to CoinMarketCap there are more than 1900 virtual currencies available for trading. There are also several exchanges for users to exchange their funds for virtual currencies. But not all of them have the same features, tokens or currencies supported. In this article we will write about some of the most important exchanges in the industry.

Top 9 Cryptocurrency Exchanges For Bitcoin Beginners

Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the most important platforms in the cryptocurrency space. Founded back in 2012, the company gained the American market and kept expanding all over the world. Currently it has offices in Japan and the United Kingdom.

The platform can be used as a wallet or as an exchange. For this, the company launched a trading platform known as Coinbase Pro, which includes graphics, and other advanced features for traders.

Coinbase is fully compliant with US regulations and has a very close contact with the IRS and with the SEC. At the moment, the exchange is working in order to add support for other virtual currencies such as Initial Coin Offering (ICO) tokens. The fees are usually between 1.49% and 3.99%.

Gemini

Gemini is another important platform in the market. Launched in 2015 by the Winklevoss Twins, Cameron and Tyler, it has received an important support in the United States. Indeed, they have a very close relationship with the regulatory agencies in the country.

The exchange accept fiat currency, but as Coinbase, it only lists just some few coins, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Zcash (ZEC). Gemini holds the digital assets of the users in a trust, operating as a fiduciary and as a custodian.

The exchange has very low fees (between 0% and 1%) that allow traders to buy virtual currencies in an easy way. Additionally, as it is compliant with regulations in the United States, the exchange is very secure for starting in the cryptocurrency world.

At the moment of writing, Gemini is the 58th most important virtual currency exchange in the market. In the last 24 hours, it has processed over $12 million dollars of trading volume.

Kraken

This is another important exchange in the cryptocurrency world. It is possible to trade using fiat currencies. Kraken has been a key player in the crypto world. Back in 2014, the exchange decided to conduct an investigation related to the missing funds from the Mt- Gox hack. Additionally, it has redistributed the stolen funds.

The exchange is also compliant with rules from the United States. Additionally, the fees start at 0.16%. At the moment, Kraken is the 17th most important virtual currency in the market. It has a trading volume of $74 million dollars.

The most important trading pairs are BTC/EUR, BTC/USD and ETH/USD, accounting for over 58% of the total trading volume at the exchange.

BitMEX

BitMEX is also an important player in the crypto world. This is a platform that has been though for more exigent traders. Located in Hong Kong, the exchange trades around $1 billion dollars in transactions per day.

The exchange offers some features that the other platforms mentioned before do not offer. We are talking about futures contracts and perpetual contracts traded in Bitcoin.

The platform also offers short selling and margin trading up to 100%. The fees are 0.05% and 0.25%. This exchange does not work with fiat currencies such as the ones we’ve mentioned before. Moreover, it does not comply with all the regulations and is not available for citizens from the United States.

IDEX

All the exchanges and platforms that we have mentioned are centralized exchanges. But the market has also decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, and IDEX is one of them. It has been built using the Ethereum blockchain. Users at the exchange can trade ERC-20 tokens using the smart contract technology, popularized by Ethereum.

IDEX has a a trading volume of around $3 million dollars. Additionally, it is very user friendly compared to other decentralized exchanges. Unfortunately, the platform only allows for crypto-to-crypto trading, meaning that it would be necessary to start buying cryptocurrencies using another exchange.

The main difference between centralized and decentralized exchanges is that the first one does not control users’ funds. The transactions occur between peers and the exchange is never in control of users’ funds.

This is very positive. In the past, several exchanges were attacked and lost the funds of their users. As decentralized exchanges do not operate with the users’ funds, attacks to these platforms disappear. However, users should be very careful on how they store their virtual currencies.

The exchange features over 300 different virtual currencies. The most important trading pairs at the exchange are HOT/ETH, CYFM/ETH and ESHIP/ETH, accounting for almost 30% of the total trading volume at the platform.

Waves Decentralized Exchange

This is another decentralized exchange that is famous thanks to its blockchain and virtual currency Waves. However, the exchange is a hybrid platform. That means that users have the improved security of a decentralized exchange but the speed and user friendliness that centralized exchanges offer.

The Waves Decentralized Exchange has over 65 different trading pairs. According to its trading volume ($175,502) the platform is the 157th most important in the market. The most used trading pairs are WAVES/BTC, WAVES/USD and LTC/WAVES. This accounts for 53% of its total trading volume.

According to some reports, the exchange was not working properly and was involved in some controversies around the issuance of fake coins and other unregistered tokens.

Cobinhood

Cobinhood entered the cryptocurrency market as the world’s first commission-free cryptocurrency exchange. The platform offers zero trading fees for its users. It is possible to do so due to the fact that that is has some added paid services. For example, they offer ICO underwriting services, a prime subscription service, and margin-trading.

At the moment, the exchange features 60 different virtual currencies. The exchange is not decentralized, that means that users’ funds are not protected as in decentralized platforms. In the future, the exchange wants to become fully decentralized.

OKEx

This is also one of the most important virtual currency exchanges available. It was, for example, the second major exchange to move to the blockchain- and crypto-friendly island of Malta.

The platform features 500 different cryptocurrencies and has a massive trading volume of $800 million dollars. The most traded pairs are BTC/USDT, EOS/USDT and ETH/USDT. They account for 37% of the total trading volume of the platform.

The platform has also other services for users and it focuses on professional and wealthy investors traders. An interesting feature of the exchange is that the fees decrease as the volume rises.

Digitex Futures

This is another commission-free cryptocurrency exchange. But it is different to Cobinhood. The platform uses the native token known as DGTX that has been planned for increasing its value during time since profits and losses are paid in DGTX.

Powered by Smart Contracts, the exchange provides a secure and decentralized experience similar to the one offered by IDEX or Waves. However, this platform has no fees, which is very positive for margin traders that can increase their profits.

Conclusion

There are several virtual currency exchanges in the market, and all of them offer different features. Some of them are decentralized, some others offer less trading fees and a few have very high liquidity.

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